It's
a point made very bravely by Brian Weatherly in the opening
paragraphs of his article, Plotting Pilot Error (Truck &
Driver, June 2013), that most truck accidents are squarely down
to the driver. It doesn't make comfortable reading, especially when
you read on and find he backs up his assertion with statistics. The
fact is irrefutable: when it comes to accidents it's not just a
reckless few, we are all the weakest link.
But
it really shouldn't be a surprise. Manufacturers like Volvo don't
spend millions of pounds in the research and development of safety
systems for no reason. As far as the truck itself goes, safety
systems add nothing to productivity. Operated within the laws of
physics, a truck will always be safe on a road. A well maintained
vehicle can never be dangerous; a road is a static lump of tarmac, to
describe one as dangerous is non nonsensical. Brian is right,
there's a common problem in all this, one we've known about all along
but have never wanted to recognise. Unlike the people at Volvo.
The
bottom line is that where the human brain fails to react or act
quickly enough, ECU's are so much better, and faster. And where
enforcement fails to control all drivers, all of the time, active
electronic systems will one day control all vehicles. More and more,
active intervention is being used in vehicle safety, gradually
removing the driver from the decision making process. Brian makes a
kind, if not redeeming gesture in his final paragraph, quoting Volvo
as saying that some aspects of safety will always be left to the
driver, seatbelt use, for example, he says. But this fails to
imagine the result of total control: that passive systems, like
seatbelts, become superfluous. Sadly, so do the wonderful skills of
the long lost craft of lorry driving.
